Temporal and spatial analysis of population ageing and growing younger in Slovakia

Anotace: Population ageing is one of the fundamental features of current population development, with an evidently irreversible future impact. The intensity and importance of this process is significant on a global scale, mainly during the past hundred years. Population ageing is linked causally to the second demographic transition and its end in the more developed parts of the world. To a certain extent, this can be labelled a “success of the modernisation of life”; on the other hand, it leads to a few problems in relation to the family, to the social and economic components of society. Even though this process is irreversible from the viewpoint of the individual, it is, in fact, changeable from the viewpoint of a specific population. The main aim of the paper is an analysis of the ageing population of Slovakia with an emphasis on the temporal and spatial-temporal aspect of changes in the age structure in NUTS 4 SR territorial units. The Slovak population is affected by the ageing of the population in the context of European development. The study reveals the fact that its nature and intensity are changing. The 1990s in Slovakia are characterised by relative bottom-up ageing, with an abrupt increase in intensity. In contrast, the process of relative top-down ageing is typically of very low intensity. The main cause is a radical decline in fertility combined with the very slight improvement in mortality rates. Multiple cohorts born after the Second World War in the age structure of Slovakia shifted to over the age of 45, and this identifies the very process of ageing from the middle. The last decade (2011 – 2021) of the analysis indicates a gradual reversal in the age structure development of the Slovak population. This last decade is characterised by a population growing younger from the bottom and intensification of the ageing process at the top. Regional analysis using the Sonis method confirms Slovakia-wide trends of relative top-down ageing or growing younger from below, although identifying the causes is more difficult. The study confirms the cardinal process of the population growing younger from below in NUTS 4 around the capital of the Slovak Republic.